buy me some cracker jack
by vapanalley
Summary: Ironman is an inspiration. He may have been born into a family with prestige and brains, but he worked hard to make his own mark, be his own man and Rick admires that the most about Tony Stark. Rick wants to be just like Ironman when he grows up. (OC from Ironman 2)


**buy me some crack jack (and get me an ironman mask)  
**

A giant Ironman fan, Rick has all the collectables a true fan should have. Sure, the posters on his wall a little worn and so what if the Ironman logo on his favorite shirt is laced with thick veins of broken ink? It just means his stuff is well loved.

Ironman is an inspiration. He may have been born into a family with prestige and brains, but he worked hard to make his own mark, be his own man and Rick admires that the most about Tony Stark.

Rick wants to be just like Ironman when he grows up, even if the tabloids are always posting mean things about him. He will always cut out all the news articles about Ironman from the _Daily Dash_ and thumbtack them onto his cork board.

* * *

"Hey Ricky, go find your winter coat okay? It's going to be chilly where we're going this weekend." Julia says over dinner. Rick's mom always tells him to call her Julia because she says she can't stand feeling old, but he just thinks that because everyone calls her Jules or Julie or God forbid _'_sweetheart' at work that she just wants to be feel mature and old for once. Julia works at _Diane's Diner_ down on 3d Street.

Which is why he can't get over why _Julia_ has to call him 'Ricky' all the time.

Rick just grunts around his mouth full of mac n' cheese, third night in a row. No Hamburger Helper this week, it looks like. Just mac n' cheese and maybe some green bean casserole if Mrs. Greeber the landlady is feeling giving.

"Guess." Julia says. This time it sounds more like a command and not a sly attempt to get Rick to speak.

"Uh...the grocery store? The freezer section is pretty chilly."

"Nope. Try again."

"Canada."

"Really? Is that the best you can do?"

"Antartica."

"Now you're just being silly!" His mom said with a cheeky grin on her face. It's the grin that makes the store clerks blush, the pretty one that Rick thinks makes her look like she's so full of light. The grin that blooms into a full and winsome smile that makes all the tired creases in her face fade a bit, the worried wrinkles around her mouth and eyes soften into laugh lines instead. Julia is really young compared to all of his classmates' moms, but that just means that she can keep up with him better when they got out to the park to play.

"Nope. You have to tell me, Julia. I really don't know."

"The Stark Expo. Ironman, Tony Stark, the whole nine yards with those robots you like and all the futuristic things your little brain can soak."

"No way. That's like the best thing ever! How? What? Whe-"

Rick pushes his chair back and nearly flips over his dinner plate and saves it just in time. But not in enough time to spare his fork the deadly fall from their old scratched up Formica table to the gritty tiled ground. His heart is beating so fast he thinks it just might pop out of his mouth.

"Ricky," Julia says with wry expression. "Sit down and clean your plate. Drink some juice, you look almost too excited for your own good."

Finishing his plate in record time, he even washes his own dishes and then sprints to the one computer in the house to turn on the internet. It's going to take ages on the DSL, but he figures that this great news just has to be shared. He can feel Julia watching him from the kitchen and turns his head to look back at her over his shoulder.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you a million and one times with an arc reactor at the center."

Julia just returns his smile and takes a sip of her juice.

"You can thank me by dressing warmly and getting all your homework done."

* * *

School is kind of a hassle for Rick because he doesn't dress like everyone else and he actually eats the school lunches. In his defense, he kind of has to because he applied for the free lunch program.

John sits next to him under the tree in the front lawn and shrugs off his backpack with an exaggerated sigh of relief.

"You're not going to believe this. Julia got us tickets to the Stark Expo!" Rick says with gusto. Even the cold wind blowing doesn't bother him because the warmth of the knowledge that he's going to finally see Ironman in the flesh, or at least, in the armor, is too exciting.

"Whoa. What are you going to do there? What are you going to wear? That's great!" John says. He bites into his PB and J and chews with a blissful expression on his face.

"You don't understand. It's going to be the best weekend ever."

"Oh yeah, I get it. You'll get to see Ironman and stuff, but I know you know I know that Spider-man is better."

"John! That's an awful thing to say!"

Rick scoots away and makes his ugliest face at his best friend who only takes a sip from his milk carton with a content expression on his face.

"That's because you know I'm right."

Rick shakes his head and laughs.

* * *

Paul Jemison once cornered Rick on the play ground and tried to steal his shoes. His brand new green and black checkered Vans that Julia spent, what they considered, a small fortune on to give him on Christmas.

Rick fought back with the fiery and intensity of a thousand lion cubs, screaming and scratching and punching at the bigger boy who was too stunned by Rick's outlandish behavior to act. At first.

But then he got into the swing of things, he started hitting Rick back and gave Rick a black eye, and a bruised tummy and nearly broke his arm by stepping on it.

At the end of the fight Rick was flat on his back with Paul standing over him with a wicked smile on his face before he crouched down and began to unlace Rick's new sneakers.

It was then that John came charging towards the pair half way hidden by the curve of the big blue slide with a war cry that would have scarred off a whole flock of angry crows and tackled Paul to the ground. He scratched at Paul's face and even bit the bigger boy in the arm all while screaming, "Venom! Venom! Venom!"

Paul Jemison got suspended and both Rick and John had to stay inside for recess for a whole week, and in that week inside they discovered that they both liked super heroes and reading comic books and watching exciting action packed movies and thought that the Grinch was the coolest green guy ever.

* * *

Julia was right.

Stark Expo was cold.

Even though the glimmer of lights looked so warm, only the auditoriums and large halls were heated, with the empty concrete and hole-y steel structures littering the grounds, despite the trees, the walk between buildings was cold. Really cold.

Neither Rick nor Julia had gloves, so they just held hands as they walked from display to display.

There was a pagoda where musical instruments played all sorts of music remotely. A man lay at the center of the pagoda when Rick and Julia went to watch and he just sort of lay there, on the ground with his eyes close as the cymbals crashed and flutes and clarinets in a case moved without any fingers to press the key holes. String instruments attacked to the ceiling wailed beautifully and Rick stood and watched for a really long time.

He was going to build stuff like that someday. He was going to go to school and build things just like this, but better. More. More something.

* * *

The Ironman mask and 'repulsor beam' come free at kiosks and food stands. After buying an overpriced back of popcorn and a bag of cotton candy, Julia hands Rick the mask and the glowing disk and he puts both on excitedly.

"I look good right? Right? Do I look just like him? Is the mask just right?"

Julia pretends to look at him thoughtfully. She purses her lips and tilts her head as she regards him.

"You know what...it's perfect. Just like Ironman. In fact, you could be Ironboy!"

"Ironboy. Thanks. You."

"You're welcome."

Just then the speakers lining the walkways and hidden behind strategically placed rocks and shrubs echo with an announcement.

"Attention, all attendees, there will be a live demonstration by Hammer Industries in thirty minutes in the main building. Please attend and enjoy your day Stark Expo, a place where you can catch a glimpse into the future."

"Should we head on over Ironboy?"

"Yes. We. Must. Attend."

Julia shakes her head and hands him red and gold streaked cotton candy and takes his free hand. Rick tries to pull away, he's big enough to walk on his own, but she grips tight and shakes here head. There's nothing Rick can do now, so he just holds his mom's hand and lets her walk with him to the main building where suddenly all Rick can see is a sea of black cloth and starched pants made from soft looking fabric. There are men dressed in serious suits and colorful ties. Two women with flaming red hair walk past and one of them even smiles at Rick as they walk up the steps steadily, the loud click-clack of their heels a steady rhythm, like a heart, like the heart of Stark Expo as they make a break through the crowd.

* * *

In the fast moving crowd, Rick looses his grip on Julia.

And he freezes up. He waits for her to come back and shivers in his jacket and feels the night wind blow through his worn jeans.

A thud and a thick crunch. Robotic joints squeal and tense and move and suddenly there is a robot standing in front of him. It's tall and there's a gun sticking out of its shoulder. There's whirring and whining and clicking and snapping and Rick stares because he's never been this close to something like _that_. There are people screaming all around him, but he's too fascinated but this monstrous thing before him. A big man could fit in there. But the head is too small.

Nothing like Ironman at all.

Every super hero has to face down a super villain.

Rick holds up his glowing palm because he is feeling brave. The robot stops moving. There's still whirring going on somewhere in its body and a bright, intelligent, scary light shines from rectangle set in it's too small face.

He can handle this. Rick is unafraid.

He holds his ground and faces the giant robot before him. Something lands behind him, the soft crunch of pavement grinding under thick boots and then a repulsor beam is shooting out from Rick's palm. Rick is so surprised that he jumps back and look down at his own hand incredulously. No way that a silly plastic light from a food stand could possibly...

"Nice work, kid!" says a blur of gold and red. Warm air hits Rick's arms and legs and he watches as _Ironman_ flies off to fight evil.

Rick gasps and then looks down at the smoldering evil robot at his feet and the 'repulsor beam' strapped on his hand. Awe is setting in, sinking into his body and making him feel giddy. He's so happy right now even though he's so scared at the same time. Maybe he's happy because he's scared.

Julia's hand slips into his in that moment. Smooth palms and worn fingertips and cool smooth nails that are red like the insides of those special oranges she brings back from the market on Sundays in the spring.

"Where have you been Ironboy?" Julia says, and she sounds a little scared too. But her hands are warm so Rick just shakes his head and lets her lead him away, away from the robot and Ironman and the lives of super heroes and Stark Expo.

* * *

First days are bad enough when Rick had to go to school, but now that he has to go to work it's even worse. The anxiety of meeting new people, coupled with the uncomfortable knowledge that for the next few weeks or so he's going to be _monitored_ to see if he really is the competent, efficient workaholic his resume makes him out to be is enough to drive anyone nuts.

But Rick keeps his cool. Or at least, he tries to as he walks into the Stark Industries New York office. The first building of its kind to be powered by the amazing green energy that an arc reactor can provide.

The woman at the front desk greets him pleasantly and Rick tries not to be embarrassed about his off the rack suit that Julia bought him when he graduated business school. It still fits, so there's no point in throwing it away. Rick can only hope that his amusing tie is enough to salvage his first impression.

It has the Apollo space ship module manual printed on its front. It's kind of fun. Well, _he_ thought it was fun, but what does he know about science? He's a business major, here to work for accounting and pray to the number gods that he doesn't mess up any numbers and does all his calculations rights.

But it's in the moments that Rick is quietly panicking about his suit that the fire alarm goes off. At first he doesn't even notice someone yelling 'Fire' in the most bored and apathetic way possible, but when he doesn't he's nearly tripping over himself to get out of the front lobby despite his previous trajectory directed towards one of five elevators.

Men in custom suits and women in tightly fitted pencil skirts march out from the elevators and step out of the building in orderly lines. A steady beeping sound, only mildly alarming, fills the air and a few red lights flash almost lazily.

Rick feels like this is the most relaxed reaction to a fire that he's ever witnessed. It's so mild that he's always afraid that it's a drill and he's panicking for nothing, but the there really does seem to be a real fire judging from the way there is smoke pouring out of the tenth story window as he looks up.

"He's still got it." Someone next to Rick says. "Oh hey, you must be the new guy for Accounting. I'm Mayur Patel."

"How did you know?" Rick says.

"You have death grip on your suit case. Which probably has a calculator or something in it. Precious numbers and stuff. And you're probably new, because you look kind of frazzled and a little confused. The departments been waiting for new blood for _forever_."

"Oh. Hi. I'm Richard Westerly, but everyone just calls me Rick."

"Pleasure." Mayur says, flashing blinding white teeth and holding out his hand. He has a firm shake, the kind of shake that makes Rick wish he had grown up with someone to tell him how to shake hands like he imagines a super hero would.

"Whose still got it?" Rick says.

"Tony Stark, of course! He's always bugging the boss lady and she doesn't stand for it, but whenever she leaves him to his own devices in the upper levels he always sets something on fire. Or so they say. Accounting usually works on the lower floors. Closer to the revolving doors, closer to Friday."

"Uh."

Mayur just smiles and shakes his head.

"You don't believe me. Ironman is supposed to be this super guy who is in control and knows what he's doing right? Well, he is, but he's also kind of a mad scientist, that you have to admit."

And then he's shushing Rick and pointing to the doorway where a woman with red hair streaked with gray is walking out of the building. The click of her heels reminds Rick of a heartbeat, so steady, the heart of Stark Industries.

"To all who are waiting so patiently for the fire alarms to be reset, thank you so much for your time. I apologize for the..."

"Happens all the time." Mayur whispers out of the side of his mouth, his eyes twinkling. And Rick feels better now. He feels okay somehow, maybe it's because he knows that his childhood idol isn't as perfect as he thought (even though he knew that it's not like he's actually experiences that imperfection quite like this before), or maybe it's because he's made a new friend in his new department or maybe it's because the smell of smoke is getting to him.

But. Things are looking good right now. Pretty excellent in fact.


End file.
